(Conan
the Barbarian I#67) - As the jailer approached with the night's meal,
Yusef asked him if it was more of the usual slop, and the jailer
called Yusef a pig and noted he was lucky to get anything.
Explaining that Yusef's slaying of the guard kept him trapped in the
dungeon, the jailer told Yusef if it was up to him, he would have just
run him through and and get it over with.

Having been sent by Yusef's lover, Tara of Hanumar, to rescue Yusef,
Conan confronted the guard, ordering him to release Yusef. Surprised
into dropping the plate, the jailer asked how Conan had gotten there,
but Conan refused to tell, ordering the guard to swiftly do as he said.

The guard refused, drawing his sword and warning Conan that if he took one more step, one of them would taste the other's sword.

However, at that very second, the guard was affected by the magics of
an unidentified Stygian sorcerer of the Black Ring, who was seeking to
prevent Conan (and Red Sonja and Bêlit) from obtaining a page of the
Iron-Bound Book of Skelos, stolen from Thoth-Amon by an unidentified
thief. Utilizing the energies of a striped
alley cat, the sorcerer transformed the guard into a feral wild-cat,
who dropped his sword and leapt at Conan.

Shocked by the transformation and the sudden attack, Conan was knocked
on his back by the cat-man, whose curved claws dug into his shoulders.

Thirsty for blood, the were-cat's saliva dripped from his fangs, but
Conan kicked it off of him (possibly by kicking him in the
tenders).

The
were-cat surprised Conan by landing on his feet and dove at Conan
again, and Conan narrowly had time to grab his own, fallen sword and
thrust it upward.

Impaled through the
chest, the were-cat roared, then writhed and spat in pain, but
nonetheless pulled itself back up to his feet and charge Conan anew.
With no time to do anything else, Conan rushed forward and caught the
creature in a bear-hug, trying to crush its ribs.

Considering
past encounters with similar creatures and realizing he was likely
caught between feuding gods, Conan fiercely strangled the creature,
whose claws rent the stone beneath them in its death-throes. The dead were-cat reverted to its human form, which remained dead.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.

He is referred to on the cover as "the man-tiger," but the cat that was
used to empower him was described as a striped alley cat, and his
transformed body was more like a panther than a tiger. No stripes,
anyway. Conan refers to him as a were-creature and a thing, while the
narration text calls him a man-tiger and a were-cat.

I'd consider the jailer, who was
later transformed into the were-cat, as one
of the sorcerer's lackeys. Why? Two hints:

The men who became beasts willingly underwent
the transformation (and retained
their intelligence or part of it). Otherwise, the sorcerer could
have transformed anyone to suit his purposes, including Red Sonja,
Conan or Bêlit;

The
jailer was very near to the old man who had stolen the page of the book
of
Skelos. Maybe he had been paid to kill the prisoner, or to
torture him to glean any knowledge about the page.--Spidermay

I'm
not sure about this, as the jailer had wanted to get promoted out of
the dungeons, and he was completely surprised by Conan's arrival. Perhaps he could only affect either willing OR weak-willed or sufficiently evil people.

I'm
not sure why he went after Conan when Sonja had the page, especially
since they had been opposing each other and then hard parted ways. Perhaps he knew, like any true fan, that Conan and Sonja would eventually join forces and oppose his efforts.--Snood

This was an expansion of a sub-profile originally
done by Spidermay...I was working on a profile on the unidentified
Stygian sorcerer of the Black Ring from this story and decided their
were too many images to keep the various animal-men in sub-profiles. As
I was halfway done with the sorcerer's profile and mostly done with the
animal-men's profiles, Markus pointed out the main profile to me. Bad
me.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The were-cat should be distinguished from:

Various cat-people, including the Cat People race(s)...there's a lot of these...

alley cat

The unidentfied Stygian sorcerer of the Black Ring held a striped alley
cat in his hands as he watched Red Sonja take the page from the
Iron-Bound Book of Skelos and flee with Conan.

For whatever reason, the sorcerer chose to follow Conan rather than
Sonja, and as the Cimmerian barbarian took a diversion to free Yusuf
from King Tanolos' castle's dungeons, the sorcerer followed him into
the dungeon.

The small cat purred as it
watched and as the Stygian sorcerer pet him, and then the sorcerer used
the cat's energies/etc. to transform an unidentified jailer into a
were-man.

--Conan the Barbarian I#67

Note:
It's unrevealed whether the alley cat was killed or otherwise harmed in
the spell that empowered the were-man. If it survived that, it's
subsequent fate is unrevealed.